95: Sad Sheep Mountain

Xu Sanyan swallowed hard; there had definitely been no one outside the temple just moments ago, yet in the blink of an eye, two more people appeared.

What a sinister place!

The old nun’s expression was benevolent, and at first glance, she inspired goodwill in people.

But Xu Sanyan only felt a chill in his heart, raising his guard to the highest level, not daring to relax in the slightest.

The two young monks at the entrance stared at Xu Sanyan with wide, curious eyes, as if they rarely saw strangers.

“Amitābha…” the old nun chanted softly, then continued, “This humble nun, Cisheng, is the abbess of Miaoyin Nunnery.”

Xu Sanyan dared not be careless and quickly returned the greeting, “This junior, Xu Sanyan, greets you, Master.”

Xu Sanyan raised his gaze and silently scanned the three of them, hearing their calm breathing, and listening closely, he could even hear their heartbeats!

Living people?!

Xu Sanyan’s eyebrows furrowed. He couldn't see through this old nun; perhaps her cultivation was extremely high, so her sudden appearance behind him was acceptable, but those two young ones…

No matter how he looked at them, they seemed to be Mortals, their cultivation at most the Inner Qi Realm. Xu Sanyan could easily handle someone of that cultivation with one hand, so how could he not have noticed them at all?

Perhaps… the problem wasn’t the people, but this temple?

Cisheng’s voice was calm as she asked, “Does the benefactor know where this place is?”

Xu Sanyan shook his head. “Please tell me, Master.”

“This place is the border between the Kingdom of Liang and Qiyang Mountain. If the benefactor continues forward, he will enter the Qiyang Mountain territory.”

“Qiyang Mountain?” Xu Sanyan murmured to himself. He hadn’t seen this mountain range on his token. Could he have taken the wrong path?

“Within Qiyang Mountain, Mortals should not enter. It is not a place where living people can tread.” Cisheng’s smile gradually faded.

Mortals should not enter…

“Are there ghosts?” Xu Sanyan asked.

He had yet to encounter a ghost since he began cultivating.

Cisheng slowly began, “Before, Qiyang Mountain wasn’t called Qiyang Mountain; it was called Xianyang Mountain. Many common people lived there. Although life was hard, they could at least manage to feed themselves.”

Xu Sanyan felt a surge of anxiety. Who the hell wanted to hear her tell a story?

But he didn’t dare to interrupt and could only obediently agree. This old nun was simply too eerie.

Cisheng continued, “There was a large village in the mountains, about several hundred households. In the village, there were five girls who grew up together and were very close.”

Xu Sanyan nodded in agreement, his eyes darting around. Suddenly, his brow furrowed; he felt… those two young monks seemed to have gotten closer?

Cisheng looked up at the sky. “There was a bad custom in the village: before a girl married, she had to have someone ‘prick her red.’ The villagers believed this act could ward off disaster.”

“Prick her red?”

Xu Sanyan heard this for the first time and asked curiously, “What does that mean?”

“Hehe… it means finding someone to defile one’s body.” A deep-seated resentment was hidden in Cisheng’s eyes.

Xu Sanyan was stunned. Is it that perverted?

Why would they not want a perfectly good maiden, but insist on marrying a 'used' one?

“The eldest of the five girls was about to get married, but the one who ‘pricked her red’ was… her own father.” Cisheng’s words were shocking. At this, Xu Sanyan was dumbfounded.

A ghost father?

He felt he was perverted enough, but he hadn't expected there to be someone even more so. Compared to true perverts, he still had a lot to learn.

Xu Sanyan snapped back to reality, looking at the temple with a gaze of astonishment. Suddenly, he froze—those two monks… were even closer!

This was definitely not an illusion. Initially, he was about twenty steps away from the two monks, then seventeen or eighteen steps, and now twelve or thirteen steps.

Xu Sanyan’s eyes narrowed, staring intently at the two monks. With his current cultivation, not even a rustle of leaves within a hundred zhang could escape his ears, yet he had not detected any movement from them.

Cisheng seemed oblivious, continuing to speak to herself, “The girl struggled fiercely, and her struggles attracted the villagers. The girl thought she was saved, but unexpectedly… that group of villagers actually helped her father hold her down…”

As she spoke, tears welled in Cisheng’s eyes, as if she felt the same pain.

“The girl was forced to marry. On her wedding day, she hanged herself in the sedan chair. The other four girls watched silently from a distance. They knew that their day would come too.”

Xu Sanyan suddenly interrupted, “Master, what time is it now?”

He didn’t want to listen anymore; he had a feeling the story would end with a “surprise” for him.

Cisheng seemed not to hear him and continued her narration, “There was a temple outside the mountain. Some said that becoming a nun meant not having to marry and not being ‘pricked red.’ So, the four girls discussed becoming nuns.”

Xu Sanyan watched the two nuns warily, ready to flee at any moment.

When his eyes met those of the young nun, she shyly lowered her head.

Xu Sanyan pursed his lips, his heart growing even more peculiar.

“But the temple was outside the mountain. The four girls agreed to gather with their belongings before dawn the next morning. They walked for a whole day and finally saw the temple. The girls were filled with infinite joy, thinking they could finally escape that place.”

Xu Sanyan slowly backed away, trying to distance himself from them.

“But they didn’t expect that the temple was actually in collusion with the mountain village. Many girls from outside the big mountain were abducted and sent into the mountain through the temple, then bought by the villagers there.”

“The four girls were sent back after going in circles…”

Xu Sanyan kept his eyes on the two nuns; they no longer approached. So, as he retreated, he watched them without blinking, and Cisheng’s voice grew further and further away, more and more indistinct…

“The fathers of the four girls were all very angry, so they locked them up at home, preparing to marry them off.”

Xu Sanyan froze, the clear sound of Cisheng’s voice in his ears making his hair stand on end.

Because he had already walked nearly a hundred steps, yet Cisheng’s words still echoed in his ears.

She had been following him all along!

“The four girls had already agreed that if they were forced to marry, they would hang themselves at home. So, the next day, all four households discovered their daughters hanging limply from the rafters, wearing red corduroy.”

“Their fathers returned, only to blame their mothers for not watching them properly, and at the same time, regretted raising them for so long, having lost out on a sum of silver.”

Xu Sanyan’s eyes narrowed slightly, and his figure flickered, suddenly appearing a thousand li away. The temple and the two nuns were no longer in his sight.

Xu Sanyan let out a slight sigh of relief.

“But even after the girls hanged themselves, they found no peace; they were married off in ghost marriages…” Cisheng’s mournful voice once again reached his ears.

Xu Sanyan’s gaze gradually turned fierce. He suddenly turned back to look at Cisheng. “Hmph, you lingering spirit, do you think I’m afraid of you?!”

With that, a swirling mass of black mist appeared behind him, and a slender figure emerged from it. Three sharp claws suddenly pierced Cisheng’s heart.

Cisheng seemed oblivious, looking up at Xu Sanyan. “The girls did not wish to marry when they were alive, preferring death. But after death, they were forced into ghost marriages, and their resentment has been impossible to dispel since…”

“Go to hell! Resentment impossible to dispel? I’ll help you dispel it!” Xu Sanyan’s face was ferocious, his clothes ripped apart, and a blood-red mist emerged, obscuring him.